Cashflow

Photo Credit: Miikka Skaffari | Published: 01-04-2008

I recently read the book Rich Dad / Poor Dad which was a really enlightening book. Its the unique viewpoint of a person who was raised by 2 main mentors in life. One of them was his real dad…the poor one who was all about getting the good education and good job and working hard to pay the bills. The other dad was his good friend’s dad, who was a real estate entrepreneur…teaching lessons of finance and investing. He ends up listening to his rich dad’s advise more than his real dad’s, and writes a book on the two very different viewpoints.

Photo Credit: Laurentian Accounting Association

One of the things mentioned in this book is a game that rich dad developed to help teach people and children these lessons of finance an investing that are not taught in schools. The game is called Cashflow 101. I caught wind that there was a “Cashflow” event going on at Dave & Busters so I decided to check it out and play the game.

Cashflow can be thought of as a more modern and realistic version Monopoly. First you choose a balance sheet which determines your occupation, your income, and your fixed expenses. The game is laid out in two parts: The rat race and the fast track. You also choose one of the many “dreams” on the fast track. Starting out in the rat race, you roll the dice landing on payday squares, opportunity squares, market squares, and doodad squares …and go round and round collecting money, having kids, paying for doodads, and investing in opportunities.

You get out of the rat race by creating a passive income that exceeds your expenses.

Once your in the fast track you focus on growing your estate by buying/selling businesses and real estate. You win by buying your dream that you choose at the beginning of the game, or increasing your passive income to more than 50k per month.

Just playing a rushed version of the game that we never finished was extremely enlightening. There were several moments where things just clicked for me. The game is brilliant and I cant wait to play it again…and also in real life!